! v^.-c<sm:>smam!WWli>i^^^ 



A Near --Dimension Stock Incident 



A sawmill was cutting veueer flitches wlienever suitable timber was 

 secured, and was making some quartered oak lumber as an iueideut 

 thereto. Sometimes when the grain was not running straight the 

 sawyer would have one end of a flitch blocked out considerably in 

 eilging to get straighter grain in the veneer, and this would make a 

 tapering, triangular piece. Often in the final running of a flitch 

 the sawyer would chalk it for cross cutting, maybe two or three feet 

 from one end, and at times both ends. Quite a large pile of these 

 ends hail accumulated, running in length from two to nearly four 

 feet, in thickness from two .to four inches, and in width from six to 

 fwefve inches. 



''What do you do with those short ends from the flitches?" was 

 :i.sked of the millmaii. 



"1 am just wanting to know what to do with them," the iiiillmau 

 replied. "When they are four feet or longer I can put them back 

 on the carriage and run them into short lumber, but below four feet 

 rhey are too short to handle on the mill, and I don't know just what 

 to do with them. " 



It was then suggested to him that they were good material for 

 making small dimension stock for the furniture trade, but the idea 

 di(Jn 't sound good to him because he' had never found it was possible 

 to realize a good enough price, for such stock to make its manufacture 

 worth while. 



The same mill was working out and trimming up the boards 'ami 

 triangular pieces incident to sawing the flitches, and from these 

 there were a lot of edgings and end trimmings that went over to 

 the cross-cut saw and from there down to the woodpile. These and 

 the ends made enough good quai'tered oak to have started a fair 



assortment of small dimension stock, and, besides, the process of 

 sawing other oak logs yielded plrin oak trimmings that could certainly 

 be used in the same work. 



The shorts from the flitches could have been worked into barrel 

 heading by the addition of a special short log mill for that work. 

 But it does not seem good policy to use them for that purpose when 

 there is just as much need for shorts and dimension stock in the 

 furniture trade as there is for heading in the barrel business. 



If was enough to make one feel a bit peevish to see those shorts 

 in fine, thick quartered oak. with only a knot here and there to mar 

 the perfection, which could easily be worked out in reducing to small 

 dimensions. When one considers that those needing such thick stock 

 as barber chair arms can get it only by gluing up several thicknesses 

 of one-inch short lumber, the claim that there is nothing in the small 

 dimension stock business seems inconsistent. If there is not it is a 

 fault of the trade some way, somewhere; a lack of getting together 

 and getting at the business as it should be. There is a use for every 

 good piece of oak from the size of a man's finger and a foot long, 

 up, and there certainly should be good use for the thick quartered 

 ends from veneer flitches that range from two to three feet in length. 

 To see stock of this kind going to waste is one of the strongest argu- 

 ments in favor of having the makers and users of hardwood dimen 

 sion stock get together and have "an understanding, and build up 

 a larger trade in this line of wood products that will benefit both the 

 producer and the user. _ Good hardwood timber is too valuable to 

 waste in this way, especially since there is a need for all of it and it 

 is merely a matter of getting at that need in the riglit way. 



J. C. T. 



^^«>^STO-y.HaK;> o^m>?m^TO;<y^v^v.vJ*^iW.M:;i^ 



What Is Padouk? 



Padouk is a name applied to two Indian trees. One is I'lcrocari>us 

 ihittiergioides, which is also called Tenasscrim mahogany, vermilion 

 wood, or Andaman redwood; the other is Pierocarpus infUeus, known 

 . also as Burmese rosewood and Indian or Philippine mahogany. The 

 latter has a more extensive distribution and is found throughout the 

 East Indies and particularly in the Philippine Islands, where it is 

 called nara. 



Pterocarpvs dalbergioides is a large and handsome tree and a 

 native chiefly of the Andaman Islands, where it attains immense 

 sizee. Trees of the largest size abound in the forests of British 

 Barma. It often grows to a height of from eighty to one hundred 

 twenty-five feet, with a clear length of from twenty to fifty feet, 

 and a diameter of from three to five feet. Like the true mahogany, 

 the trunk of this tree is frequently much buttressed, especially when 

 growing in damp localities or on low-lying ground. The wood in 

 India is prized beyond all others for a good many purposes and is 

 held in liigh esteem in England and the United States, where lar;;? 

 <|uantities are consumed for all purposes for which mahogany is 

 generally available. The wood is dark red, often beautifully varie- 

 gated, grading from deep crimson, through cherry red, dull red, pink 

 and reddish brown to brown. It is very hard, heavy (about sixty 

 l)0unds per cubic foot), slightly aromatic, somewhat coarse, but very 

 ilose-grained. It works fairly well and requires about two years to 

 season thoroughly. It does not warp and crack, and takes a very 

 beautiful polish. While the wood is often sold and used in place of 

 true mahogany, it is considerably heavier and has a darker red color, 

 which fades upon exposure to the light and aii-. True mahogany, on 

 the eontrary, becomes darker and more beautiful with age. There 

 should be no difliculty even for the layman to distinguish the true 

 mahogany from the padouk or Tenasserim mahogany by the fact 

 that the latter is heavier and has numerous faint, narrow lines of 

 softer tissue visible under a hand lens on a smooth transverse section 

 •f Hhe wood. 



The wood of the root is also beautifully variegated, close-grained, 

 and is extensively used in Burnra for making expensive furniture and 

 for musical instruments. 



Pterocarpns indicvs is a tree which grows principally in the Maia> 

 Archipelago, in China, the Moluccas and Philippine Islands, and 

 doubtless is a source of Burma or true padouk. A few writers on 

 Indian woods claim that all of the so-called padouk is produced by 

 Pterocarpus d^beit/ioidcs, but the best authorities now apply the 

 name Andaman redwood to the latter tree, and the name padouk to 

 Pterocarpus indicus. At any rate, it is known that the latter grows 

 in the territory where padouk is exploited, and it is more than likely 

 that both species are cut indiscriminately. Pterocarpus iiidicus is a 

 handsome, fast-growing tree which produces very fine timber. It 

 varies in color from nearly white to deep red, resembling that of 

 Andaman redwood. The tree attains its best development in the 

 Philippine Islands, where the wood is exploited and sometimes sold 

 as Philippine mahogany. Like that of the Andaman redwood, it is 

 very durable and is highly prized as a construction timber. It is 

 employed extensively in the manufacture of all kinds of furniture. 

 Excepting in color, this wood does not differ from that of Andaman 

 redwood. L. L. D. 



About half a million dollars' worth of cork paper is required every 

 year to tip cigarettes. The highest grade is sliced very thin — one- 

 five-hundredth of an inch — and the sheets glued to a thin paper 

 backing. These long ribbons are cut into smaller ones, one-half inch 

 wide, and placed in cigarette tipping machines which have a capacity 

 of sixty thousand cigarettes a day. About fifteen million cigarettes 

 are tipped in the United States daily, or upward of five billion a year. 

 The cork paper required for this purpose would, if spread out, cover 

 about six hundred acres. Efforts are being made to use thin veneers 

 of spruce and other fine-textured woods in place of cork, but witli 

 little success, as the materi.Tl is too stiiT. 



— »r— 



